Assessment of heavy metals in food and drug packaging materials

Abstract

Background: Food and drug packaging materials are an integral part of our everyday life.  Noxious elements can inadvertently be included in packaging materials in various stages of their production. Adulterants, adhesives, colorants and heavy metal interference are the common sources of contamination in food packaging materials. Heavy metal toxicity has far-reaching ill effects on living organisms. The present study aimed at qualitatively and quantitatively analysing heavy metal contamination of various materials that are used for food and drug packaging in India. Methods: The qualitative detection was done by rapid assay and heavy metals were quantified with the help of inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). A total of 13 types of food and drug packaging materials were procured from local market and analysed for four heavy metals viz. arsenic (As), vanadium (V), mercury (Hg) and cadmium (Cd). The concentration of each heavy metal in the samples was compared with permitted values published by the European Council. Results: Of the 13 samples, heavy metals were qualitatively detected in 10 samples. ICP­-OES values for quantitative estimation showed presence of heavy metal above permissible range in 10 of the studied samples for vanadium, all samples for arsenic, two samples for mercury and one sample for cadmium. Arsenic was found to be the commonest heavy metal contaminant, present in 13 samples above permissible limit. Conclusions: The significantly higher concentration of heavy metal poses a potential health risk to the consumer and affects the quality of the food.